09/07/2025 08:30
- 12:00
HALL: Seminar Room 05
Proponent:
Budelli R.
Chair:
Panzeca I.
Speaker:
Budelli R.,
Cargnelutti F.,
Ghasemi E.,
Panzeca I.,
Schimmenti R.
The two terms, esotericism and occult sciences, have in common the idea of a secret knowledge, reserved for initiates, which may refer to philosophical-religious doctrines or to practices and rituals that are usually not well accepted by the set of rules and norms that dominate a society at a given time (the so-called orthodoxy). The contents and the aims of such knowledge may be very different from each other, but, in some cases, they overlap and can be found in movements or authors of diverse backgrounds. Interest in these topics has accompanied the history of Islamic thought from the very beginning, and has transversally involved many disciplines: Qur'anic exegesis, Islamic law, theology, philosophy, history and mysticism.
With this panel, we would like to provide some examples of the breadth of this literature, which has provoked lively debates and interesting reflections among the greatest Muslim scholars of the first centuries of Islam.
Papers will range from the work attributed to the Brethren of the Purity, theal- Risala al-Jami?a, on the 'secret science' (Baffioni), to the Qur'anic commentary on the so-called 'Protective' Suras (nos. 113-114) by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (Budelli), oracles and divinations in the work of Ibn ?afar al-?iqilli (Cargnelutti), the esoteric aspect of the work of the great Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (Cuciniello), the treatises on alchemy and magic attributed to Avicenna (Panzeca), the esoteric interpretation of the isolated letters of the Qur'an in Abu al-Qasim Qušayri's commentary (Schimmenti), the accusations of magic levelled at the Prophet Mu?ammad in the light of the work of al-?addad (Ghasemi).